


No Looking Back

by Salmon_I



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Mentions of Character Death, Pre-Canon, mentions of drug overdose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:28:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26319460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salmon_I/pseuds/Salmon_I
Summary: Instead of putting in for a room transfer, she applies for a different school.  She gets an apartment this time, and a part-time job as a waitress at a restaurant in town.  Franchise.  No Mom & Pop stores.  No antenna.  No jukebox.  No looking back.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 7





	No Looking Back

When Liz is seventeen, she packs a bag and leaves Roswell in her rearview mirror. Rosa has only been dead a few days, and Liz can’t handle any of it. She can’t handle the hate, and she can handle the sympathy even less. She can’t handle her own anger and pain the most. She doesn’t stay for graduation or Rosa’s funeral.

She sees two oceans that summer. She drives from New Mexico to California and then from California she turns around and zigzags her way to the east coast. She screams into empty skies and cries herself to sleep at night. She never looks back. It becomes her motto.

* * *

Liz is twenty when her roommate ODs. She survives, but the university explains she won’t be returning for the semester. Liz can’t sleep in her dorm afterward. She falls asleep at the library or in her car more nights than she counts. She wasn’t even that close to her, and she tells herself it makes no sense to be so affected.

Instead of putting in for a room transfer, she applies for a different school. She gets an apartment this time, and a part-time job as a waitress at a restaurant in town. Franchise. No Mom & Pop stores. No antenna. No jukebox. No looking back.

* * *

At twenty-seven, Liz loses her grant. Diego is at a conference in Chicago, and the lease at her apartment is up for renewal. She doesn’t renew. She packs up what she has in her car - the apartment came furnished, she never keeps more than she can fit in her car - and she wonders where to go.

There’s an unopened letter inviting her to a reunion in Roswell she has no intention of going to, and text messages from who two days ago were her co-workers inviting her out for drinks to commiserate their lost jobs. She doesn’t respond to the text messages. They don’t bother to text a second time. She knows the code to Diego’s apartment, and she leaves her engagement ring on the counter. He never texts at all, even long after the conference ends and he must have found it.

Her father leaves a voicemail, asking how she is, and it’s not until she hears his voice that Liz realizes where she’s driving to. It’s not the same this time, she assures herself, because Denver is what’s in her rearview mirror. Roswell isn’t her destination, it’s just a stop along the way. No looking back.


End file.
